Dîner en Blanc 2013: the year’s most elegant flash mob

Dîner en Blanc, the pop-up party where diners don bridal whites and picnic en masse, has a dark secret: the appearanceof spontaneity takes planning. Grueling amounts of planning. Not just for organizers—although their task is certainlytricky—but for participants, too. The rules are notoriously strict: dress must be suitably elegant; cream and ivory garb is forbidden; and tables (which attendees have to supply and haul around themselves, along with white chairs, white dinnerware, white cloth napkins, cutlery, wineglasses and a multi-course meal) must not exceed 32 x 32 inches. It can feel like a bit of a slog, but this finicky attention to detail is, after all, what makes the fête a success. The second annual Toronto event, held on Thursday night, transformed a grungy parking lot at Queen and Church into an elegant, 1,600-person banquet, complete with crystal champagne flutes, multi-tiered seafood trays and a pregnant woman harnessed to an elaborate fabric swing (we’re still confused). Here, a play-by-play of how the night came together, plus a slideshow of some of the most ambitious meals, decked-out participants and raucous party scenes.

5:30 p.m. The super-secret venue has yet to be divulged (but a suspiciously white-clad crowd is setting up a tent in the parking lot across the street from the Toronto Life offices at Queen and Church. Hmm…)

6 p.m. At St. James Park, a meet-up point three blocks from the parking lot in question, the scene is chaotic: harried group leaders, clumps of confused would-be revelers and enough off-white garb to have transgressors sharing relieved smiles over their brown belts and nude flats.

6:20 p.m. Still waiting at the meet-up. Women adjust their feathery white fascinators, floor-skimming gowns and lacy short-shorts. Bystanders become curious. One man ambles up and asks, “Are you guys an orchestra?”